The BEV surface utility or often called light vehicle market is highly competitive, with many mines seeing it as an easy first step into electrification – but it is also an important one given that some large mines can have many hundreds of these light trucks in operation, whether by the mining company itself or by its contractors. So the potential decarbonisation effect from a Scope 1 standpoint is not insignificant.
Some players are building dedicated vehicles from scratch, especially those looking to market them underground, but for surface vehicles most are conversions from existing trucks with some ruggedisation and alteration aside from the powertrain itself.
But still others are taking existing successful light vehicle BEVs and selling them into mining – one of these, and already a highly successful one, with a large fleet of 53 of its R6 light vehicles operating with Antofagasta Minerals at Centinela – is Chile’s Voltera. The R6 has a range of 403 kilometres and i capable of carrying up to 900 kg. It was especially tested for the mining sector, under real working conditions and at high altitudes, with excellent results.
IM Editorial Director Paul Moore caught up with Co-Founder Andres Vergara recently and also saw two of the company’s mining BEVs up close at the Exponor 2024 show in Antofagasta in June – the new R7 4×4 light vehicle and the M3 people carrier as well as its Chinese-made Iocharger plug-in charging station, which is interoperable for both CCS2 and GB/T charging ports.
Vergara explained that Voltera is already the number one seller of electric cars in Chile, with Tesla for example only having entered the Chilean market this year in 2024. And all of these sales are to different types of companies, it does not operate in the retail market. And from a company perspective its three main customers are light trucks for mining, road cars for Uber for the Uber Green platform, plus vans for last mile deliveries in food, consumer retail and other trades.
Voltera represents two Chinese BEV majors in Chile – Dongfeng and Geely. In some cases it sells them under the Voltera brand and in some cases under the OEM brand. It normally uses the Geely brand in its own right as it is quite well known but most Dongfeng vehicles are sold as Voltera and this is the most common sold into mining.
Vergara: “For mining we sell the light trucks almost exclusively under our Voltera brand and we make some modifications related to security as well as some other adjustments.” He adds on the market: “There are hundreds of Chinese BEV brands, and it was very difficult for anyone to distinguish between them based on quality or consistency. We chose two leading OEMs, but also opted to use our own brand in the event that if there were any supply issues, we could also source vehicles from other leading Chinese OEMs as well.”
So that is the current size of the BEV light vehicle market in mining in Chile and what is the future potential? “Today we are selling large numbers both to the mining contractors and to the mining companies. This is all done direct, not through dealers. We have really just started in the mining market – the big mining groups here normally have a bidding process that can take a year or two and we are involved in these tenders with most of the major miners in Chile. That said we are already present in many of the mines via contractor fleets.”
A good example is global mining contractor Thiess, which earlier this year announced an agreement to lease two Voltera R6 BEVs, which were delivered to their Llano Copper Project in October 2023 – Llano being a major greenfield project that is part of the overall Centinela operations. Thiess is carrying out a full mining services contract at Llano including maintenance, mining operations, and asset management services.
Vergara added on Voltera’s offering: “We do not just provide vehicles to mining, rather a full 360 degree BEV service – including chargers, IoT, telemetry systems, software and even car sharing solutions so the same car can be shared by multiple drivers. This is very unique to us. Our Iochargers include fast chargers which can charge the cars in only 30 minutes but we also offer other lower price point versions where the vehicle can be plugged in overnight. It all depends on how the operation or contractor is going to use the vehicles. We also perform the charger maintenance and have the software platforms to control them. This includes giving customers the ability to have booked charging slots for vehicles and reduce waiting times.” Offerings include Enex E-Pro, which is the e-mobility app brand of Shell’s licensee in Chile.
He also emphasised the massive BEV potential in Chile – in 2023 their sales as a proportion of overall sales was less than 1% – this compares to China for example which in the same year was almost 40% of overall sales. “The fleet that we have at Centinela is the largest BEV fleet at any mining operation in the world. So we are pioneers and first movers in that respect. Taking the top 20 copper mines in Chile alone, each has well over 500 pick up trucks and some of them have over 1,000. We estimate in the Chilean mining industry as a whole there are 30,000 to 40,000 pick ups that will need replacing with BEV versions in the coming years. Our market share in mining BEVs is already 70% and we hope to maintain and grow that.” Not only that but Voltera is also very active in Peru and is in active discussions with the major mining operators and contractors there as well.
